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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29567313">i just want to love you, to love you, to love you well</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuomniia/pseuds/tuomniia'>tuomniia</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Fluff, Oneshot, Other, deep relationship ava, just two idiots helplessly in love w eachother and finally happy and comfortable</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 22:21:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,203</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29567313</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuomniia/pseuds/tuomniia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m so, so in love with you.” </p><p>She thought that perhaps her  heart couldn’t swell any more— that she couldn’t be any happier than  this— but it seems she is wrong. For once, she doesn’t mind being  corrected. Helpless to her emotion, she smiles back at them. “And I  you.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Detective/Ava du Mortain, Female Detective/Ava du Mortain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>i just want to love you, to love you, to love you well</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Their fingers drum in time with the beat of the music emitted from the old car’s radio. It’s what she supposes is considered pop these days, but Ava doesn’t know what the tune is supposed to be. She doesn’t recognize it. She does recognize Cameron though, in the driver’s seat next to her.</span>
  <span>
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  </span>
  <span>
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  <span>Summer is in full swing, and the sunlight bares down on the earth relentlessly, driving any memory of spring far, far away. Cicadas sing their buzzing notes in the trees that grow between the fields  — seemingly endless seas of growing corn, and soy, and wheat. Dust, dry and choking from the heat, swirls up behind the old hatchback in great clouds that obscure everything in the rearview mirror. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The two of them are in the middle of nowhere. It doesn’t matter though, not now. They’re nowhere together. </span>
  <span>
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  </span>
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  <span>A flash of fire-red glints in the corner of her eye. Draws her attention back to Cameron. They’re smiling. Or rather, it is as close as they get to smiling. Crooked, playful, and lovely. A smirk, more than anything else. To anyone else. Still, in the language of Cameron, it is a smile. It means the same. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Summertide radiates through the open windows of the driver’s side. Rays of it are cast diagonally over their face, their neck, their hair. Refracting red glow inside the cabin, warming the space farther. She feels as though they are living in a photograph, just then. Cameron’s white t-shirt flapping in the breeze, and sun on their teeth. </span>
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  </span>
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  <span>She can taste the future wistfulness of this moment on her tongue. </span>
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  </span>
  <span>Cameron’s lips move every so often, matching a lyric. Stumbling over lines they don’t know but are too happy to care about getting it wrong. The detective does this often, she knows. Will hum along to songs they’ve never heard just because they want to sing. The easygoing nature of it  — of her love  — settles into taut muscles. With every breath of their sound, their presence, she softens. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There had been a time when this had been worrying — had fought against it — but those times are past.</span>
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  <span>Without fully comprehending it, she becomes caught up in staring at Cameron— at the way light settles over their freckles and turns their eyes to honey-gold. All the colours of fall sitting right here next to her, in the middle of summer. Ava is so caught up in their being, she’s caught off guard when they reach over and pluck her aviators right from her face. Slide them over their own nose, as though they own them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She scoffs softly, and they grin back at her  — laughing at whatever they find in her expression. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The sound of their laughter fills the cab. Hard won euphoria. It is one of her favourite sounds. Their laugh eases itself into her old bones. Into the chambers of her heart. Exactly where this melody belongs. </span>
  <span>
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  <span>Nine-hundred years, and Cameron has only been here for the tiniest fraction of her time on earth. She can’t remember anymore what it is to exist without them. Isn’t sure that she wants to. Not anymore. </span>
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  <span>Cameron shifts in their seat to lean against the driver’s side door, the wind beginning to grab more insistently at their hair and shirt. Warm light butterflies over their collarbones. Memories of trailing soft kisses over their ridge are among her favourite. Strands of chestnut flame whip around their face, getting caught in the arms of Ava’s sunglasses. They don’t seem to notice or care. Instead, they’re happily singing along to the words of a love song  — ones Ava finds herself sympathetic to. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She allows herself the indulgence of listening, turning her face back towards the windshield and closing her eyes. Letting the warmth, the rich scent of hot earth, of summer wind, and the sound of her detective’s voice lull her further into peace.</span>
  <span>
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  <span>Time passes — and she isn’t sure how much, for she’s too lost in her own bliss — and Cameron stops humming abruptly. Ava opens her eyes in time to see their expression change from carefree to serious. Their hand, the one still on the wheel, grips tighter. Their knuckles pale with the tension. And before Ava can ask what’s wrong, they turn to her, strands of autumn hanging in their eyes. </span>
  <span>
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  </span>
  <span>
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  <span>“I’m so, so in love with you.” </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>She thought that perhaps her heart couldn’t swell any more— that she couldn’t be any happier than this— but it seems she is wrong. For once, she doesn’t mind being corrected. Helpless to her emotion, she smiles back at them. “And I you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cameron is silent for a beat, for two, for three. Honeyed eyes flicking back to the road. As warm as the statement makes her, she wishes they would just focus on driving. Ava would probably survive a crash, but Cameron might not. Ava does not allow that thought to progress any farther.</span>
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  </span>
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  <span>To Ava’s immense pleasure and relief,  they allow the car to slow to a complete halt. Right there, in the middle of the road. The two of them and this car surrounded by infinite fields of uncollected harvest, and heat, and cicada song.</span>
  <span>
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  </span>
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  <span>Once Cameron shifts the vehicle into park, they turn back to her, still leisurely leaning against the driver’s side door. Observing her much like they had early in their relationship  — when all they had between them were secrets and uncertainty.</span>
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  <span>“Is something wrong?” She asks, frowning and instinctually checking Cameron over. They appear to be fine. Their heart is loud, but steady. She can hear it clearer now that the tires aren’t roaring over gravel and dust. </span>
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  <span>“No.” They say, watching Ava, another long beat of silence following. </span>
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  <span>She wonders for a moment if they’re lying, though she can find no indication of distress. Ava begins to worry that maybe, finally, they’ve found a better way to hide their emotions from her kind. Then she scolds herself for thinking this way, as Cameron has made the effort to be honest with her. Her detective wouldn’t begin to lie now— she trusts them. She does.</span>
  <span>
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  <span>Still, nerves she can only attribute to her partner begin to nip at her insides. Infuriating as it is to be so bothered by another person, she’s learned to accept this as part of opening her heart to them. </span>
  <span>
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  <span>Cameron’s eyes bore into her. Now that they’re not catching the sunlight, they’re darker. More akin to mahogany wood than to wildflower honey. They are no less kind though, she can see the affection filling their thoughts. </span>
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  <span>Their next words don’t entirely come as a revelation because, of course, she’s thought of them too. Has wondered what they would say in response many times. Has thought that perhaps they would not be sure of their answer. What they may want from her. However, right now their words are steady. Their heart, while loud, is not tripping. They are not unsure, they are steadfast. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her chest tightens — though not unkindly — around her heart. Her mouth has already begun to twitch at their corners before Cameron has even spoken.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <span>“I want you and me, forever,” they state, the sunlight kissing their neck delicately as Ava does in the dawn, “so marry me.”</span>
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  </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>tumblr @ tuomniia</p></blockquote></div></div>
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